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BN: Okay. Let's go back to now the redress movement. In a general sense, was wondering if you or anyone in your family were kind of involved in the redress movement.

AU: You know, none of us were involved. And looking back, I'm kind of wondering, I'm not exactly sure why because at that time, my mom and my sister were both at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. I think, well, I'm not sure about my sister, but my mother was there for sure. I had sort of dropped out of movement things. I was a divorcee raising my son, working full time. So I really wasn't doing anything with the community. But no, no one in our family got involved. And I'm sure glad there were a lot of JAs that did, and I'm so happy they stood up. And I'm good friends with some of the people that were very active. So important. My one thing about redress is I'm just sorry that it occurred, for many Issei, after they were gone. So like my grandparents, none of them lived long enough to learn about the reparations and the apology from the President. I think that would have meant a lot to many of them.

BN: Was your dad still alive?

AU: Yeah, he was.

BN: Okay. I'm just wondering how, if you had a sense of how they felt about actually getting the check and getting the letter.

AU: You know, my dad didn't seem to have much of a reaction. I don't really know why, I never asked. I don't remember my mother's reaction at the time.

BN: I mean, with a lot of families, and the community as a whole, the redress movement sort of sparks this revival of interest in the camp story and pilgrimage, days of remembrance and so forth. Did you take part in any of those kinds of things, or your parents?

AU: I believe my sister went to one of the first or second pilgrimages. I didn't go all these decades, and so I'm sure a lot of the redress activities, the day of remembrance activities, that kind of perked me up toward going on a pilgrimage, I think around 2019. I went on my first pilgrimage, and I'm really glad I did. And then I do attend DORs when I'm able to. And, of course, once again, I've written a couple of pieces, too, that are specifically about the days of remembrance.

VM: May I interject a question? Amy, in a number of your poems in several books, you do mention the Vietnam War and its impact and responses, and then later reverberations with other wars. And I was wondering, because I did not grow up in a Japanese American community. I was wondering if you could... and, in fact, you had several poems that talked more specifically about how it impacted families, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what you remember of the dynamics between Nisei and Sansei with regard to the Vietnam War here in Southern California? Whether in your family or outside.

AU: Gee. My sister and I were both part of the early Asian American Movement in L.A., and that was really focused on antiwar activities in the late '60s, war was still going on. So I think our parents, I don't even remember either of my parents ever objecting to things we were participating in, in regards to the war. I think we did have the reputation among the larger clan, extended clan, that our family -- and maybe my mother, too, because she worked at Asian American Studies Center -- that our family was a little bit leaning to the left, slash radical, slash not very Nisei-ish. [Laughs] Not typical Nisei.

VM: I just wondered because I knew that, or maybe because in your family there were two Sansei daughters, they knew that a lot of Sansei men were facing the issues of the draft, and that parents and sons... I just wondered if, in your family, there were any discussions, I mean, the larger extended family or even your friends, that you noticed.

AU: Well, I can give you something a little closer to home. I got married in 1970, and my husband at the time, Randy, his draft number was one of the early numbers picked. And I had very strong anti-Vietnam War views. He was a Sansei who wasn't really that political. So I remember we had lots of arguments -- well, they turned out to be arguments, but I was trying to urge him to say that he didn't want to go to Vietnam and was a pacifist and a Buddhist, because he is a Buddhist. [Interruption] I don't know if that's called a religious deferment. It was something at the time where I think some people got out of serving in the army. But he wouldn't do that, and I remember being frustrated about it. But what he did do is he joined the reserves, which was a pretty long commitment. I think it was something like six years he had to serve in the reserves.

VM: Thank you.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.